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loose-paper zone β€” keep light
Font

How long?

Print letters on machine(s)
Uses the current letter, size and machine speed. Excludes setup time β€” see the letter types. The per-year number assumes machines running day and night.

What would each letter cost?

Paper: pages Γ—
Pen ink: pen Γ· sheets
Envelope:
Machine wear β“˜
Postage:
Per letter
Sheets-per-pen defaults to about 200 β€” still an estimate; count sheets at the next pen change and update it here. Postage follows the flag, is approximate, and assumes a standard-weight letter. The US-dollar line uses rough exchange rates. Machine wear is an estimate β€” real maintenance costs are unknown; we think this is quite conservative.

Types of letters β€” human time

Unique β€” β‰ˆ 15 min per letter

Every letter is its own piece of writing. Budget roughly 10 to 15 minutes of human time to write each one, plus about 2 minutes to queue it. The machine's writing time runs unattended, so you may not count it against your own hours.

Formulaic β€” β‰ˆ 1 hour Γ· n

Mail merged but still personal: "Hi Sally β€” how do you feel about X? I would love to do Y with you." The machine takes the same time per letter, but the human time is one setup job: about 1 hour whether n is fifty or a thousand, plus whatever it takes to prepare the name list. Per letter, that is 1 hour divided by the batch size.

Batch β€” same as one Unique letter, once

The same letter, printed again and again. The human time equals writing one unique letter (about 15 minutes, once) plus the one-time setup; after that a reprint costs only minutes to queue. Per letter, that is 15 minutes divided by the whole print run. Good for short thank-you notes sent to many places.